Armored Victory 1945: U.S. Army Tank Combat in the European Theater from the Battle of the Bulge to Germany's Surrender

By Steven Zaloga

Beautifully illustrated with more than 1,000 photos of American tanks and armored vehicles.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Jun 14, 2023
• ISBN: 9780811745598

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Copyright © 2012 by Steven Zaloga

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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Zaloga, Steve.

Armored victory 1945 : U.S. Army tank combat in the European theater from the Battle of the Bulge to Germany’s surrender / Steven Zaloga.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-8117-0771-8

1. World War, 1939–1945—Tank warfare. 2. World War, 1939–1945—Tank warfare—Pictorial works. 3. World War, 1939–1945—Campaigns—Western Front. 4. World War, 1939–1945—Campaigns—Western Front—Pictorial works. 5. United States. Army—Armored troops—History—World War, 1939–1945. 6. United States. Army—Armored troops—History—World War, 1939–1945—Pictorial works. I. Title.

D793.Z343 2012

940.54'21—dc23

2011039336

eBook ISBN: 9780811745598

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Crushing the Bulge

Chapter 2: Operation Nordwind

Chapter 3: Operation Grenade: Over the Roer

Chapter 4: Over the Rhine

Chapter 5: Into Central Germany

Chapter 6: On to Berlin

Chapter 7: The Shape of Things to Come

Index

Introduction

This book is the Second of a two-volume set covering U.S. Army armored units in combat in the European theater of operations from D-Day on 6 June 1944 through the end of the conflict in May 1945. The two volumes are split chronologically between 1944 and 1945. The aim of this book is to provide an in-depth visual record of armored combat through the eyes of the U.S. Army combat cameramen. Although the majority of the photos cover American armored vehicles, an extensive selection of photos of German vehicles is also included to help provide a more complete image of the fighting. However, the armored operations of the Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery’s neighboring British-Canadian 21st Army Group are outside the scope of this book. Nor does this book cover U.S. armored units the Mediterranean theater of operations in Italy.

These photos come primarily from the main collection of World War II U.S. Army Signal Corps photos, which totals about a quarter of a million prints. This collection was initially housed at the Pentagon through the early 1970s when I first began to do my photo research. It was later transferred to the Defense Audio-Visual Agency facility at Bolling Air Force Base in Virginia and finally to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA II) at College Park, Maryland, where it currently resides. The vast majority of the photos in this book come from this collection. A subsidiary Signal Corps collection resides at the U.S. Army Military History Institute at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, which also recently absorbed the rump Signal Corps collection held by the U.S. Army Center for Military History. In most cases, these photos duplicate the National Archives’ holdings. Although the Signal Corps collections contain most of the surviving World War II photos, they do not contain all of them.

Many photos shot by Signal Corps combat cameramen were released through other venues during the war, such as the Office of War Information. A large portion of these photos are available at NARA II. In addition, other photos were never accepted into the main Signal Corps collection but were retained by separate organizations. For example, the library at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point has the Bradley Collection, which is a separate and distinct collection of Signal Corps photos, some of which are not located in the main Signal Corps holdings at the National Archives or Military History Institute. Finally, there are a variety of other smaller holdings at various archives, including the Patton Museum Library, formerly at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and the Ordnance Museum, formerly at Aberdeen Proving Ground. Besides the U.S. Army collections, there are also some useful photos of U.S. Army operations in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force collections. It has taken me nearly forty years of research to collect the photos in this book.

The Signal Corps photos sometimes, but not always, include basic information on the date, location, and units depicted in the photo. This data is incomplete—and sometimes quite erroneous. Unit information is often lacking, and the spelling of the European locations is notoriously erratic. For example, a series of photos identified as having been taken in Ploy, France, were actually taken in Parroy, France. Over the years, European military historians have done considerable work in more precisely identifying the actual location of these photos, and I have made every effort to try to correct this information when possible. However, a certain measure of uncertainty still remains about some of the details of many photos.

I have attempted to select the photos in this books to satisfy a variety of potential readers. I have included photos of interest to military historians covering significant battles. At the same time, I have attempted to include photos providing technical details that will appeal to military hobbyists such as military modelers, war-gamers, and historical reenactors. It is very difficult to achieve an ideal balance because of the very uneven coverage in wartime photos. After decades of research in the Signal Corps photos, I quickly discovered that combat photos taken during or shortly after major battles—such as Omaha Beach on D-Day or the first few days of fighting in the Ardennes in December 1945—are actually quite rare. Other events attracted a disproportionate amount of attention, so photo coverage of the liberation of Paris on 25 August 1944 was quite thorough. I have included some photos of poor technical quality as I believe these will be of interest to readers. Likewise, in the captions, I have tried to reach a balance between historical and technical information.

Chapter 1

Crushing the Bulge

The German offensive in the Ardennes was stopped in the days after Christmas 1944. However, the fighting was far from over. During the first week of January 1945, Hitler attempted to secure some gains from the limited success in the Bastogne area and shifted the panzer forces of the Sixth Panzer Army from the failed northern sector to the Bastogne area. By this time, Lt. Gen. Courtney Hodges’s U.S. First Army and Lt. Gen. George Patton’s U.S. Third Army had moved up substantial reserves of armor, and the last-gasp German attacks were crushed. Hitler finally recognized the obvious, pulled back the Sixth Panzer Army, and sent it off to Hungary, where it became embroiled in an equally doomed offensive against the Red Army.

While the Germans realized that the Ardennes offensive had failed, they did not give up. January saw a brutal series of battles as the U.S. Army attempted to regain the territory lost in December. The enemy was as much the weather as the Germans, with particularly cold winter weather and deep snow hampering operations. On 16 January 1945, Patton’s Third Army linked up with Hodges’s First Army near Houffalize, and by 28 January, the last territory lost in the Battle of the Bulge was regained.

Losses in the Ardennes were heavy on both sides. American casualties totaled 75,482, of which 8,407 were killed, 46,170 wounded, and 20,905 missing through the end of January. The British 30 Corps lost 1,408, including 200 killed, 239 wounded, and 969 missing. Estimates of German losses vary from 67,200 to 98,025 casualties, depending on the parameters. The lower figure included 11,171 killed, 34,439 wounded, and 23,150 missing. The Wehrmacht lost about 610 tanks and assault guns in the Ardennes (about 45 percent of its original strength) compared to about 730 American tanks and tank destroyers (less than 20 percent of the force). The head of the German High Command West (OB West) staff later wrote that the Ardennes had broken the backbone of Wehrmacht on the Western Front. The diarist of the Wehrmacht High Command, P. E. Schramm, later noted, The abortive [Ardennes] offensive had made clear not only the aerial but the armored superiority of the enemy.

The Ardennes fighting had seen the last major tank-versus-tank fighting on the Western Front during the war. The U.S. Army tank force in the European theater continued to grow with the arrival of two more armored divisions and numerous smaller formations, but the Wehrmacht was obliged to shift much of its panzer force to the east when the Red Army launched its great Oder-Vistula offensive in January 1945. Many small-scale tank-versus-tank actions would continue in the months that followed, but the main threat to American tanks were German antitank guns and the dreaded panzerfaust antitank rockets.

The crew of an M7 105mm howitzer motor carriage of Battery C, 274th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, prepares to conduct a fire mission in support of Patton’s Third Army near Bastogne on 1 January 1945. The side armored flap is folded down, showing the tops of the fiberboard ammunition canisters in the ammunition racks. This vehicle is also fitted with duckbill extended end connectors.

Elements of the 4th Armored Division were bivouacked in a wind-swept field outside Bastogne near Vaux-les-Rosieres in the week after Christmas, including these M4 tanks.

The first intended use for the new 4.5-inch T34 Calliope rocket launcher was by the 743rd Tank Battalion in support of the 30th Division’s operations in the Ardennes. Here ordnance personnel are attaching the launchers to an M4 (left) and M4A3 (right).

A T34 4.5-inch rocket launcher attached to an M4 medium tank. These were not widely used in the Ardennes fighting but saw much more extensive use in the months that followed as a supplementary artillery weapon.

An M16 machine-gun motor carriage antiaircraft half-track of the 447th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion is dug in near Neufchateau, Belgium, on New Year’s Day during the Battle of the Bulge. This vehicle (registration number 4048604) was completed as an M13 in March 1943 with twin .50-caliber machine guns and was subsequently converted to an M16 machine-gun motor carriage with quad .50-caliber machine guns. It is still fitted with the older pattern automotive headlight. This vehicle has jerrican racks added on the winch bumper and is pattern-painted with the standard First Army black camouflage over olive drab.

The crew of a 57mm antitank gun cleans its barrel during a break in the fighting near Marche, Belgium, on 2 January. This gun belonged to an antitank company of the 334th Infantry, 84th Division, which took part in the fighting after Christmas against the 116th Panzer Division near Marche-Hotton.

An M7 105mm howitzer motor carriage of Battery B, 92nd Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Armored Division, leads the way through Monteuville, Belgium, on 2 January. This is an intermediate-production vehicle from the autumn 1942 production run featuring the E4188 one-piece transmission cover with the folding armored side panels and the D47527 vertical volute suspension. Many of the M7 105mm howitzer motor carriages of the 2nd Armored Division were fitted with stowage racks on the rear hull side like those fitted to half-tracks, and this vehicle has duckbill extended end connectors for better flotation in the muddy winter conditions.

A soldier of the 6th Armored Division inspects the hull side of a Panther on 3 January. The German tank had been knocked out in the fighting east of Bastogne. Although the Panther had formidable armor on the front, its side armor was vulnerable to the full range of American medium tank guns.

The fighting northwest of Bastogne after Christmas shattered the panzer spearheads of the Fifth Panzer Army. Here a Pz.Kpfw. IV and Panther tank of the 2nd Panzer Division are recovered by U.S. forces from the Celles pocket, where they were trapped.

The town of Noville was the scene of intense fighting during the battles for Bastogne. This is the scene after the fighting, with the streets littered with destroyed equipment, including a German StuG III assault gun in the lower left foreground, a U.S. Army M2 half-track to the right, and a U.S. M4 medium tank farther down the street.

A destroyed Jagdpanzer IV with the original PaK 39 L/48 gun, knocked out in the fighting near Bastogne.

Another Jagdpanzer IV knocked out near Bastogne. This vehicle had excellent frontal armor, but thin side armor in combination with ammunition stowage in the sponsons led to catastrophic damage when the side armor was penetrated.

A Panther Ausf. G knocked out in the fighting around Bastogne in January.

A Pz.Kpfw. IV of the 3rd Company, Panzer Regiment 33, knocked out near Recogne in January. This vehicle is fitted with the Thoma shield side skirts. Although often described as antibazooka shields, these side skirts were in fact added for protection against Soviet antitank rifles, which could penetrate the thinner side armor of German tanks at close ranges.

Another example of a Pz.Kpfw. IV with the Thoma shields from SS Panzer Regiment 1, knocked out near Lutrebois.

A GI inspects a knocked-out Pz.Kpfw. IV fitted with the Thoma shield mesh skirts in January.

Tanks of the 2nd Armored Division support the 84th Division during the fighting near Amonines, Belgium, on 2 January. The lead tank appears to be a composite-hull M4 fitted with the T54 metal chevron tracks with duckbill extenders. There was quite a bit of variation in the detail of the duckbills, as many were manufactured locally in shops in Belgium and France.

The Luftwaffe air attacks on New Year’s Day, code-named Bodenplatte, led to increased vigilance by U.S. antiaircraft gunners. This is the crew of a quad M45 .50-caliber heavy machine gun turret on an M51 trailer mount of Battery C, 551st Anti-Aircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion, in Soy, Belgium, on 5 January.

An M4A3 (76mm) of the 2nd Armored Division passes a disabled German Panther Ausf. G of the 2nd SS Panzer Division along the Erezee road outside Grandmenil, Belgium, on 2 January. The Panther was one of the Sherman’s most difficult opponents and was encountered far more frequently than the rare Tiger I.

M4 (105mm) assault guns of the 32nd Armored Regiment, 3rd Armored Division, conduct a fire-support mission near Trou-de-Bra on 3 January.

As snow closed in during the early winter of 1944–45, more and more American vehicles received a quick coat of whitewash like this M36 90mm gun motor carriage from one of the units of Patton’s Third Army in Luxembourg during the final phase of the Battle of the Bulge. These paint jobs were often done hastily with mops or, in this case, with buckets.

Loretta II and other M4 (105mm) assault guns fire on German positions in support of the 66th Armored Regiment of the 2nd Armored Division during fighting near Amonines on 4 January. This tank is sporting a layer of sand bags for protection against German panzerfausts.

The 2nd Armored Division modified its M4 81mm mortar motor carriages by redirecting the mortar tube forward. This photo shows one of those vehicles in action on the outskirts of Amonines, Belgium, on 4 January.

After the 2nd Armored Division blunted the German advance near Celles, it took part in the counteroffensive to reduce the Bulge. Here the crew of an M4A1 (76mm) medium tank repairs the track in a wooded area near Amonines in the midst of a snow storm in early January.

The crew of an M5A1 light tank of the 2nd Armored Division cooks a meal during the fighting in the Ardennes on 5 January. By this time, the M5A1 was being replaced with the newer M24 light tank, but preference went to the cavalry squadrons rather than the light tank companies.

A whitewashed M3A1 half-track of the 21st Armored Infantry Battalion, 11th Armored Division, passes by a destroyed German Pz.Kpfw. IV in the village of Foy, Belgium, in early January.

A snow-covered Panzer IV/70 photographed in the Ardennes after the Battle of the Bulge.

The Wirbelwind 20mm Flak 38-Vierling antiaircraft tank was first issued in the summer of 1944 for defense of panzer units against air attack, and only 122 were completed. These were lost in the Ardennes.

A snow-covered M4A3E2 assault tank advances alongside a column of U.S. infantry through Liernieux, Belgium, on 2 January.

M4 (105mm) assault guns of the headquarters company of the 2nd Company, 32nd Armored Regiment, 3rd Armored Division, provide fire support during operations around Trou-de-Bra on 3 January. These resembled the usual Sherman tank, but had a 105mm howitzer in the turret instead of the usual 75mm gun to provide additional high-explosive fire support.

This Sd.Kfz. 251 half-track, probably from the 116th Panzer Division, was abandoned in Marcourt in early January. Curiously enough, the crew had substituted a captured .50-caliber Browning heavy machine gun for the usual German MG42. It is being inspected by a GI from the 4th Cavalry Group on 13 January.

A company of tanks of the 35th Tank Battalion, 4th Armored Division, along N-4 highway near Bastogne on 3 January.

In a scene evocative of the fighting in the Ardennes, an M4 tank of the 4th Armored Division moves past an entrenched .30-caliber machine-gun team of the 104th Infantry during the fighting to keep the Bastogne corridor open on 3 January.

The crew of an M15A1 machine-gun motor carriage antiaircraft half-track of Battery B, 571st Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion, loads 37mm ammunition near Kornelimünster, Germany, on 3 January. There was heightened interest in antiaircraft defense after months of indifference when the Luftwaffe staged its destructive but futile Operation Bodenplatte air offensive on New Year’s Day.

A GI inspects a knocked-out Panther Ausf. G in Neffe, Belgium, on 3 January, probably from the Panzer Lehr Division, which fought for this town during the attempts to break into Bastogne.

As Kampfgruppe Peiper ran out of fuel, it gradually abandoned its tanks. One of the last to be abandoned was King Tiger 204 of the 2nd Company of schwere SS Panzer Abteilung 501 (501st SS Heavy Panzer Battalion), left behind on the road near Gue in the early morning hours of Christmas Eve after La Gleize had been abandoned. It was later driven a short distance by American troops and is seen broken down along the road near Ruy on 4 January.